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Anderson, Wynn
Dalea lanata var. lanata
Dalea lanata Spreng. var. lanata
Woolly Prairie Clover
Fabaceae (Pea family)
Synonym(s): Parosela lanata
USDA Symbol: DALAL
USDA Native Status: L48 (N)
"Prostrate perennial herbs from a deeply penetrating, orange-yellow taproot, the 1-few stems (2.5) 3-7 dm long, divaricately branching upward from near the base, the spikes mostly incurved to vertical and appearing leaf-opposed, the subterete, sparsely or obsoletely punctate or verruculose stems greenish-stramineous, varying like the foliage from densely pilosulous to glabrous, the foliage silky-cinereous to dark green, the leaflets prominently punctate or gland-pustulate dorsally; leaf-spurs almost 0; stipules narrowly triangular-subulate to almost linear, submembranous, 1-2.5 mm long, stramineous becoming dry and deciduous, often charged with one or more large glands; intrapetlolular glands 0; post-petiolular glands large, prominent, orange or yellow." (bibref: 1812).
"This is a graceful but not a showy plant, found only on dunes or deep sandy soils, sometimes associated northward with D. villosa and on the coastal plain of Texas with D. obovata and D. aurea. It has a characteristic habit, the solitary or few stems branching as they rise from the sand into openly fanshaped sprays of gray or silvery foliage, the leaves all displayed so as to face the zenith. The flowers are vivid in hue but small and fugitive; few open at any one day, and their little epistemonous petals, best seen in the early hours, fall from their high perch on the androecium a few hours after the column expands. The flower suggests, except for the free keel-petals standing below the exposed tassel of golden anthers, that of several Mexican species of Marina, but the sessile calyx, paired ovules, and chromosome number are all in accord with Dalea." (bibref: 1812).
Plant Characteristics
Duration: PerennialHabit: Herb
Leaf Arrangement: Alternate
Fruit Type: Legume
Size Notes: "Prostrate perennial herbs... The 1-few stems (2.5) 3-7 dm long." (bibref: 1812).
Leaf: "Leaves all shortly petioled or all subsessile, 1-3 cm long, with margined rachis and (in main cauline ones) 4-7 pairs of obovate, obovate-cuneate, or broadly oblanceolate, mostly emarginate, sometimes truncate or very obtuse, Flat or loosely folded, dorsally keeled leaflets 3-10 (12) mm long, charged at or just behind the tip with a prominent gland." (bibref: 1812).
Flower: "Peduncles 4-40 mm long; spikes loose and narrow, the flowers when pressed appearing more or less 3-ranked, without petals or androecia 6-8 mm diam, the axis becoming (1) 1.5-7.5 (9) cm long; bracts persistent, herbaceous, broadly ovate- or obovate-acuminate or -apiculate, charged dorsally with at least 1, usually several very large, orange or castaneous blister-glands; calyx 3.3-4.5 (4.8) mm long, the submembranous, pallid or stramineous, bluntly angulate tube 1.8-2.5 mm long, the subconcolorous ribs immersed or nearly so, the intervals charged with 1 row of 1-4 small pallid glands (sometimes only distally), the teeth varying from lanceolate to broadly ovate or deltate-acuminate, (1.3) 1.5-2.3 mm long, as long to 0.9 mm shorter than the tube; petals bright red-violet or magenta-purple, all usually (but not always) prominently gland-tipped, the banner not or not much longer than the tiny, caducous epistemonous petals, these all free; banner 2.8-4.3 mm long, the claw 1-2 mm, the ovate-cordate to more or less hastate and cucullate blade 1.8-3.1 mm long, 1.8-2.8 mm wide, its basal lobes united across the top of the claw to form a shallowly recessed cornet; wing- and keel-petals 2.2-4.3 mm long, the claw 0.2-0.8 mm long, basal or lateral to the oblong-elliptic to obovate, ovate, or suborbicular blades, these (sometimes all dissimilar in 1 flower, those of the keel often a trifle larger) 2-3.8 mm long, 1.5-2.2 mm wide; androecium 8-10-merous, sometimes functionally 5-merous with barren or vestigial intervening filaments, 6.5-8.5 mm long, the filaments separated for 1.9-2.9 mm." (bibref: 1812).
Fruit: "Pod obliquely deltate-obovate in protile, 2.5-3.1 mm long, the ventral suture concave, the strongly convex dorsal filiform, the valves at obconic base hyaline glabrous, thence thinly papery, pilosulous, charged with small scattered glands; seed ochraceous, olivaceous, or brown, smooth and sublustrous, 1.8-2.3 mm long." (bibref: 1812).
Bloom Information
Bloom Color: Red , Purple , VioletBloom Time: Apr , May , Jun , Jul , Aug , Sep , Oct , Nov , Dec
Bloom Notes: "Petals bright red-violet or magenta-purple." (bibref: 1812).
Distribution
USA: AR , CO , KS , NE , NM , OK , TXNative Distribution: "Foming extensive colonies but local and discontinuous, Pecos Valley in southeastern. New Mexico northward to the upper Canadian, Cimarron, and Arkansas rivers in southeasternColorado, southwest Kansas, and the Oklahoma Panhandle, downstream interruptedly along the Arkansas to Pulaski County, Arkansas, and eastward in Texas through the Panhandle and Red River drainage to the upper Brazos and Trinity valleys in north-central Texas; one old record from the North Platte in northeastern Colorado {Dr. James); disjunctly on the Gulf Coastal Plain, in sandy live-oak woodland, in Kenedy, Brooks, Jim Hogg, and Starr counties, south Texas.." (bibref: 1812).
Native Habitat: "Deep sandy soils, usually on hummocked dunes or drift-sand plains, near sea-level in south Texas up to ± 1260 m (4200 ft) in the interior." (bibref: 1812).
Bibliography
Bibref 1812 - Daleae imagines : an illustrated revision of Errazurizia Philippi, Psorothamnus Rydberg, Marina Leibmann, and Dalea Lucanus emend. Barneby, including all species of Leguminosae tribe Amorpheae Borissova ever referred to Dalea (1977) Barneby, Rupert C.Search More Titles in Bibliography
Additional resources
USDA: Find Dalea lanata var. lanata in USDA PlantsFNA: Find Dalea lanata var. lanata in the Flora of North America (if available)
Google: Search Google for Dalea lanata var. lanata
Metadata
Record Modified: 2021-02-25Research By: Joseph A. Marcus